ES Coverage & Interactive Game Day Thread: 2012 Redskins vs Bears (Final)

[SpacePenguin]

This!

Thanks for the news. but can anyone tell me what the orakpo injury looked like on the field ? looked like he just fell wrong.

It looked like he was injured flailing at Devin Hester after having been matched up on him in coverage by a DC that shall remain nameless.

To be fair, if his shoulder wasn't all the way healed, it was a matter of time before he hurt it again anyway. Better now than week 4 or 5.

[Boss_Hogg]

Dude, relax. You are actually amplifying things with rhetoric like that. There's nothing wrong with being happy to see Cousins looking like Tom Brady against 2nd and 3rd stringers. I don't think I've seen anyone suggest that Kirk should be the starter now.

It's there, just keep looking.

[nuposse87]

Our O-line probably did RG III a favor in the long run, kid needs to know he has lots of work to put in. He never got a chance to get into the flow of anything, due to some bad passes, suspect protection and I thought I recalled a drop or two.

There is absolutely no QB controversy though. Cousins played an outstanding half of football, albeit against questionable competition but it was still nice to see. I look at this way, bolstering the trade value, he puts in two solid preseasons in a row and we try to recoup some value out of him.

Our secondary is awful, it must be said. That and still fine tuning the O-line should be priority one next year.

[mudhog]

It looked like he was injured flailing at Devin Hester after having been matched up on him in coverage by a DC that shall remain nameless.

To be fair, if his shoulder wasn't all the way healed, it was a matter of time before he hurt it again anyway. Better now than week 4 or 5.

Thanks SpaceP. Watching the bootleg Chi thread left all us Skins fans in the dark whilst they did the player interviews. You could see Rak down on the field while they kept yaking with their LB.

The Merriweather cart-off looked bad tho. Looked like a high-ankle or a ACL/MCL. Either 6/8 weeks or season ender.

PS. I am not a coach, Just my 2cents,

Hail

[LetThePointsSoar]

MRI's on both tomorrow.

I'd almost be happier loosing Orakpo for a spell than Merriweather given the mess at safety.

Hail.

Thanks brother. Were there any other injuries tonight? Haven't gotten to see any of it yet, waiting on the DVR tomorrow.

[Gibbs Hog Heaven]

Thanks brother. Were there any other injuries tonight? Haven't gotten to see any of it yet, waiting on the DVR tomorrow.

Gomes left in a walking boot. Not sure if it's any worse than a bad sprain.

Other than that, just the usual bumps and bruises.

Hail.

[SpacePenguin]

The Merriweather cart-off looked bad tho. Looked like a high-ankle or a ACL/MCL. Either 6/8 weeks or season ender.

PS. I am not a coach, Just my 2cents,

Hail

Yeah, it did look bad. I just hope Dejon Gomes is ok. I think he's the 2nd best option at SS on the roster after Meriweather.

lol, speak of the devil, eh GHH?

HTTR

[Bacon]

One of the worst secondaries in football got punched in the gut tonight.

Banks and Cousins are the two pluses to take away from this evening.

[CrypticVillain]

ES isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I am completely shocked. :applause:

I think Banks is trying hard as he can, but if we are only keep 6WR, he is out of here. Reason being, Robinson was tearing stuff up.

Kirk Cousins is what he is, a decent quarterback who knows how to get what he needs. He is going to be a good backup here and a decent starter when we trade him.

I told my cousin, no pun intended, that the defense can't look that bad with just one person missing, but after the first quarter, it was clear that London Fletcher is extremely important.

Why do we keep dropping interceptions??? My little nephew said it is the curse of Carlos Rogers. :doh:

All in all, I am kind of happy RG3 and the rest of the team struggled and the beginning and the backups kicked butt in the 2nd half. I think this is the perfect 2nd pre-season game you can have. Keeps the starters humbled while giving the reserves confidence.

[skin23]

No doubt O-line was bad, but too often RGIII = Happy Feet.

[mudhog]

One of the worst secondaries in football got punched in the gut tonight.

Banks and Cousins are the two pluses to take away from this evening.

Yeah, they looked good. But armstrong and Crawford sure looked good too. Both their stocks raised tonight.

hail

---------- Post added August-19th-2012 at 01:04 AM ----------

Sorry, 'rose' tonight

[Dirt]

I was so pissed that I'd miss the game at work. Busy as hell running a kitchen with the game on the TV across the room. No time to look. Whenever I did, I didn't see anything horrible..saw RG3 strike one over the middle, go on a run, some good running plays otherwise..luckily I missed the bad plays lol. Wasn't till after the rush/after work that I got to sit and watch and I see Cousins do a hell of a job. So it all worked out I guess I'm glad I missed the first half lol.

Preseason's not supposed to be flashy for RG3, or any rookie, or really any starter. Especially when you're building an offense for the first time with the guy. This game was within the first 30 snaps of RG3's NFL career. I'm sure, and glad, that he's approaching the learning process properly, and making absolutely sure to not begin a habit of forcing plays. He's going to only throw/run/make a move if he's sure it's in control and going to be executed properly. He'll get quicker, more decisive and confident as he plays. He wasn't drafted so high just because he's a world class hurdler, he's also a brilliant guy and a quick learner. He'll be more than fine, he'll be great.

The biggest thing about Cousins is this - Having a performance like that in a preseason game doesn't matter as much as a regular season game, but in a regular season game, it's how you trade Matt Flynn or Kevin Kolb for a sweet deal. And doing it as convincingly as he did, it might give you reason to believe he'll do it in the season at some point. At that point, we argue over how important a backup is, and I am on board with having a home-grown solid backup. But if it's a first rounder, and you consider the picks for RG3, it's a hell of an argument. We might as well figure that during an RG3 injury, Rex is the guy this year. It's simple: if Cousins turns out to be better than a backup, you trade him because you already have a guy who's better than a backup and is better than Cousins, and you still have a backup (Rex, considering if this were to happen within the next 1-2 years). ALSO, I happen to think Kolb and Flynn are severely overrated, but Cousins (to those paying attention, not just those that saw tonight's game) could be legit.

Think of the beauty of this situation: the blessing in disguise when your superstar QB goes down. Matt Cassel becomes very valuable. You have freaking Tom Brady, you have RG3, whatever. It's win-win. If RG3 never gets hurt, then Cousins stays around as the drafted backup. If RG3 goes down, Cousins appears to be able to move the ball, and I'm no coach, but he probably looks good on film to other coaches. Decisive, strong, quick released, accurate throws. Jokes on you, 4th round draft decision haters. It could be hello first rounder.

As for the rest of the bad start, the protection would be my only big concern, but it usually is for any team. Every QB is going to sack fumble. Building a great o-line and protection is going to be a battle forever. Let's be glad we have a guy like ...actually there's no other guy like...RG3 to handle the situations as necessary.

Oh, and I think Banks should stay. Even if it's just preseason return TDs, or even if its just one trick play passing TD, the guy is at least versatile, and I believe looked good in camp - at least seems to understand and execute routes. Rather than having to make the WR roster during preseason, I would think he's earned a shot to just try it for a year, or part of the year.

[VaK9Trainer]

Did Fred Davis play tonight? I dont remember seeing him or hearing his name. Heres a thought.....since we seem to have too many tight ends and obviously need a right tackle, Is there any chance that we could trade Fred Davis for a quality RT??

[skin23]

He didn't have anyone within 10 yards of him on a crossing route in the second quarter when RGIII floated an incompletion down the seam to Moss. While preseason is not a good barometer, I did not like RGIII's happy feet or footwork at all. Numerous cases where all he had to do was simply slide left/right in the pocket and keep his eyes downfield - instead he got jumpy and hopped around like a pogo stick. Not a good showing.

[Dirt]

Did Fred Davis play tonight? I dont remember seeing him or hearing his name. Heres a thought.....since we seem to have too many tight ends and obviously need a right tackle, Is there any chance that we could trade Fred Davis for a quality RT??

Hmm, no. There isn't any chance of that. Besides, what's a 'quality RT' anyway? Gotta be a zone scheme guy, and we're probably best off creating those at home. Jammal Brown was a 'quality RT' when we got him.

Unless Fred Davis shows up to Redskins Park with a joint in his mouth, he's not going anywhere.

---------- Post added August-19th-2012 at 01:36 AM ----------

He didn't have anyone within 10 yards of him on a crossing route in the second quarter when RGIII floated an incompletion down the seam to Moss. While preseason is not a good barometer, I did not like RGIII's happy feet or footwork at all. Numerous cases where all he had to do was simply slide left/right in the pocket and keep his eyes downfield - instead he got jumpy and hoped around like a pogo stick. Not a good showing.

Simply? hehe, I think being an NFL quarterback is far from simple. 'Happy feet', there's another term with a big grey area. Peyton Manning's feet, for instance, look very happy as he's looking for receivers lol. What RG3 was doing was looking for a way to bail out of the pocket so he could make a play. It's one of the reasons he's awesome, he can do that. Whether it's running or just making space so he can pass. In his first times of dealing with NFL speed, he got caught a couple times. Really he only got caught once, otherwise he did indeed escape and prevent a bad play. He'll adjust, and even now, he's capable and making guys look stupid and making a huge play. Wait for week one. You haven't seen what Shanny's willing to do with RG3 yet.

[skin23]

Hmm, no. There isn't any chance of that. Besides, what's a 'quality RT' anyway? Gotta be a zone scheme guy, and we're probably best off creating those at home. Jammal Brown was a 'quality RT' when we got him.

Unless Fred Davis shows up to Redskins Park with a joint in his mouth, he's not going anywhere.

---------- Post added August-19th-2012 at 01:36 AM ----------

Simply? hehe, I think being an NFL quarterback is far from simple. 'Happy feet', there's another term with a big grey area. Peyton Manning's feet, for instance, look very happy as he's looking for receivers lol. What RG3 was doing was looking for a way to bail out of the pocket so he could make a play. It's one of the reasons he's awesome, he can do that. Whether it's running or just making space so he can pass. In his first times of dealing with NFL speed, he got caught a couple times. Really he only got caught once, otherwise he did indeed escape and prevent a bad play. He'll adjust, and even now, he's capable and making guys look stupid and making a huge play. Wait for week one. You haven't seen what Shanny's willing to do with RG3 yet.

You're making my point for me - there were plays he didn't need to 'bail out of the pocket so he could make a play.' All he had to do was slide in the pocket because it would have bought him another 2 seconds in the pocket, instead of panicking to try to escape. Agree it's the first time seeing NFL speed, but he looked very raw tonight. Maybe I'm being unfair, but when I watched Luck it was night and day. And no, I was not one of the people on cloud 9 after the first preseason game because it was a very small sample size. Regarding Peyton, those are not the happy feet I'm alluding to. RGIII tonight looked too quick to leave the pocket. To be honest I don't blame the guy, because our O-line is a disgrace. But over the long-haul, he has to learn to 'feel' pressure while keeping pocket presence.

And yes Cousins played against a bunch of backups, but he demonstrated exactly the opposite.

[JSSkinz]

Anyone who thinks we took Cousins so we can develop and trade him down the road is crazy, we took him as our contingency plan in case RG3 is a bust. The Redskins will never tell anyone this because its politically incorrect and can damage the confidence of RG3.

[SittingBull]

Insane Moron Draws Conclusion From NFL Preseason Game

http://www.theonion.com/articles/insane-moron-draws-conclusion-from-nfl-preseason-g,21211/

[Rooner]

Can I get anyone elses opinion on our receivers? I thought Aldrick looked good. Was impressed with Briscoe, and could definitely use his size, but we have been down that road before. Moss is looking pretty spry, bouncing up from hits like he did as a younger man. Paulsen surprised me with some soft hands. I know to keep expectations tempered as they were playing a lot of second and third teamers, but its nice when our depth at least beats their depth. Rather avoid the QB talk after the play of our line.

[BigHuv21]

Shocked the Klan of Cousins thread hasnt been made yet

[stat2883]

From a novice's viewpoint, it looked like the game plan for the first team offense was quite a bit different than what we saw in Buffalo. The focus on the run was still there, but the passing game seemed to focus more on moving the pocket and getting Griffin on the move. We don't know what he was told to focus on going into this week or what the coaches wanted to see from him. It looked to me like he was encouraged to try and go down field a little more often.

[BRAVEONAWARPATH]

Oh, and I think Banks should stay. Even if it's just preseason return TDs, or even if its just one trick play passing TD, the guy is at least versatile.

See..that's where I disagree with you. Banks is not particularly versatile. Other than returning kicks, what can he do?

You wanna talk about versatility, see Brian Mitchell.

[Wyvern]

I don't think we need to worry about the QB situation -- we're much better than we were last year when it was Beck and Grossman.

This year the Skins are breaking in Griffin -- a speedy, exciting, and potentially "franchise" QB who's definitely talented but new to the NFL. In reserve, the Skins have Grossman -- a veteran,NFL QB who's very skilled in the Shanahan offensive schemes, and who has shown he can move the team.

Also in the wings, the Skins have Cousins -- a promising rookie QB (who's flashed talent and seems a good fit in the Shanahan offenses) but will be learning the NFL game... the old fashioned way.

Cousins is getting lots of presesaon exposure and he is maximizing every opportunity given, because ...he will be the 3rd QB on the 2012 Skins roster. As #3 QB, Cousins is going to hone his skills to the NFL level, learn the playbook inside and out, with a timeline of assuming the #2 QB in 2012. (And that's assuming other teams don't come asking for a trade.)

I'm a fan of Cousins. He seems to be very professional in how he approaches his situation with the Skins -- and that he's using every opportunity he gets to advance his learning of the game. Sadly, once the regular season starts -- his opportunties for gametime experience will dry up -- but I suspect he'll still maximize whatever avenues for QB development that are still left. By 2013 (or 2014 at the latest) Cousins could become a coveted 'starter-quality' QB backing up Griffin. That said, I still suspect Grossman may still be with this team in 2013, but only if Cousins falters in his career development. Cousins is being brought along, the way rookie QBs were developed.

Let me be clear -- I don't believe that Griffin will be 'bust' -- because I think he's already shown he can be an NFL QB, and will be better than Campbell ever was. That said, I also think Griffin's backup may turn out to be very important to the Redskins success over a long 16 game season, that hopefully extends into the playoffs. Especially with this offensive line.

[SonnyandSam]

Gomes left in a walking boot. Not sure if it's any worse than a bad sprain.

Other than that, just the usual bumps and bruises.

Hail.

But Gomes also played almost the entire second half and made some nice plays. I think he just turned his ankle based on the replay. It's probably swollen and sore this AM but I think he will be OK considering how much he played after the injury was sustained.

---------- Post added August-19th-2012 at 11:29 AM ----------

He didn't have anyone within 10 yards of him on a crossing route in the second quarter when RGIII floated an incompletion down the seam to Moss. While preseason is not a good barometer, I did not like RGIII's happy feet or footwork at all. Numerous cases where all he had to do was simply slide left/right in the pocket and keep his eyes downfield - instead he got jumpy and hopped around like a pogo stick. Not a good showing.

I didn't see "happy feet". I saw zero quality pass blocking with immediate pressure on almost every pass attempt. Did you not see Montgomery shoved back into RG3 repeatedly combined with Peppers and the other DE applying pressure from the sides? There was little opportunity to move in the pocket. You have to have at least a couple seconds to set up and scan the field. Griffin had no time to set his feet.

---------- Post added August-19th-2012 at 11:39 AM ----------

As for Cousins....lets not all go "Colt Brennan" over a nice showing against twos and threes. Yes, Cousins looked very good. I think he will become a fine backup and maybe even a good starter some day. But playing against twos and threes is not even close to playing against starters. Our backups generally outplayed the Bears backups. Our twos and threes on the offensive line gave Cousins reasonable time to complete his passes and go through his progressions. Griffin had no such protection. Too many people make a big deal over a performance against bad competition.

[RedskinsInFebruary]

Did Fred Davis play tonight? I dont remember seeing him or hearing his name. Heres a thought.....since we seem to have too many tight ends and obviously need a right tackle, Is there any chance that we could trade Fred Davis for a quality RT??

Yes, Davis played--his man's the one that got to RG for the fumblesack. Cooley chipped the guy too.

I wish, given the quality of our OL, we had at least one great blocking TE or blocking backs, but no such luck. This is why Hightower should probably start this year.